If you didn’t know it, YouTube is full of free movies. Like, legitimately—I’m not talking accounts that upload movies they don’t actually have the rights to. There’s a “Free With Ads” tab on their Movies & TV storefront, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: dozens of movies, both popular and obscure, that are free to stream if you don’t mind watching a few commercials. In other words, it’s TV, with the ads you expect to find on there, but on YouTube. It might not be as sexy as streaming something on Netflix or Max, but again, it’s free, and that ain’t nothing in this increasingly expensive world. And obviously a lot of those free (with ads) movies are comedies, and some of them are even good. Here are a couple dozen free YouTube comedies Paste recommends, from silent classics to favorites from the ’90s to today.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Year: 1997
Director: Jay Roach
Stars: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Seth Green, Robert Wagner, Carrie Fisher
Rating: PG-13
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was a cultural touchstone when it was first released thanks to Mike Myers’ instantly iconic performance and plethora of catchphrases, but it’s really a more clever film than it’s ever truly been given credit for (unlike its sequels). A loving spoof on the entire genre of spy movies, rewatching it now is especially rewarding, given the recent announcement that the upcoming James Bond film will be dealing with the classic villain organization “SPECTRE.” With the possible return of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, audiences may finally understand that the character of Dr. Evil is an almost perfect parody of more serious Bond source material. Austin Powers may be a true ’90s time capsule, but many of the jokes have improved with age.—Jim Vorel
Bernie
Year: 2011
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Shirley MacLaine
Rating: R
Bernie is as much about the town of Carthage, Texas, as it is about its infamous resident Bernie Tiede (Jack Black), the town’s mortician and prime suspect in the murder of one of its most despised citizens, Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine). Unlike Nugent, Bernie is conspicuously loved by all. When he’s not helping direct the high school musical, he’s teaching Sunday school. Like a well-played mystery, Linklater’s excellent, darkly humorous (and true) story is interspersed with tantalizing interviews of the community’s residents. Linklater uses real East Texas folks to play the parts, a device that serves as the perfect balance against the drama that leads up to Bernie’s fatal encounter with the rich bitch of a widow. The comedy is sharp, with some of the film’s best lines coming from those townsfolk. —Tim Basham
The Birdcage
Year: 1996
Director: Mike Nichols
Stars: Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane
Rating: R
You know what’s awkward? When you’re a middle-aged gay Jewish South Beach drag club owner (Armand, played by Robin Williams) and your straight son shows up and asks for your blessing to marry his girlfriend who is the daughter of a Neocon senator (Gene Hackman) who heads something called “The Coalition for Moral Order.” You want to support your kid, but you don’t love being closeted by him, and the dinner meet-up ends up meaning you and your partner, Albert (Nathan Lane), are forced into a whole new level of drag in which you are straight, a cultural attaché to Greece, and married to the one-night stand straight-sexperiment (Katherine, played by Christine Baranski) that led to the conception of your son. Your partner’s offended, the Senator’s being investigated by the tabloids, tensions are running high and your houseboy Agador (Hank Azaria) has agreed to transform into a Greek butler named “Spartacus,” but let’s face it, tensions are running high on all sides-and that’s before your baby-mama gets caught in traffic and Albert sees the opportunity for the drag role of a lifetime. Fully Shakespearean hijinks ensue. The 1996 Mike Nichols remake of Edouard Molinaro’s La Cage Aux Folles was not really blistering social commentary, but beneath its glib feel-good star-vehicle exterior there are some depths you could easily miss while you’re distracted by the batsh*t-crazy and heavily sequined antics of Williams and Lane. It’s actually not only rambunctious and witty but, as with many of Robin Williams’ film roles, The Birdcage has a serious streak where a genuine investigation of personal identity is underway, and hypocrisy, acceptance, snobbery, and most of all, everyone’s individual style of “drag” (and hey, we all have one, even if we don’t always express it by putting on fake lashes and singing Sondheim) gets taken out for a much-needed exam. —Amy Glynn
Clueless
Year: 1995
Director: Amy Heckerling
Stars: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd
Rating: PG-13
The Beverly Hills reboot of Jane Austen’s classic Emma was a sleeper-smash in 1995—and much more importantly, gave the phrase “As if!” to pop culture. Alicia Silverstone is Cher, a pretty, vain, superficial LA teen who goes on a mission to turn ugly-ducking classmate Tai (Brittany Murphy) into a Superswan, only to find herself eclipsed and adrift. A soft-edged satire of nouveau-riche Angeleno culture and simultaneously of the teen rom-com genre, Clueless is neither the most subtle nor the most hard-hitting film of its era, but it’s surprisingly seductive, in large part thanks to Amy Heckerling’s scrupulously researched script, which captured a dialogue style that both represented and influenced teen-speak of the time. —Amy Glynn
The General
Year: 1926
Directors: Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckham
Stars: Joseph Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender
Rating: NR
When Yankee spies steal his locomotive and kidnap his girlfriend, a Southern railroad engineer (“The Great Stone Face” Buster Keaton) is forced to pursue his two beloveds across enemy lines. While a few Charlie Chaplin pictures give it a run for its money, The General is arguably the finest silent comedy ever made—if not the finest comedy ever made. At the pinnacle of Buster Keaton’s renowned career, the film didn’t receive critical or box-office success when released, but it has aged tremendously. It’s a spectacle of story, mishmashing romance, adventure, action (chases, fires, explosions) and comedy into a seamless silent masterpiece. —David Roark
Heathers
Year: 1989
Director: Michael Lehmann
Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Kim Walker
Rating: R
As much an homage to ’80s teen romps—care of stalwarts like John Hughes and Cameron Crowe—as it is an attempt to push that genre to its near tasteless extremes, Heathers is a hilarious glimpse into the festering core of the teenage id, all sunglasses and cigarettes and jail bait and misunderstood kitsch. Like any coming-of-age teen soap opera, much of the film’s appeal is in its vaunting of style over substance—coining whole ways of speaking, dressing and posturing for an impressionable generation brought up on Hollywood tropes—but Heathers embraces its style as an essential keystone to filmmaking, recognizing that even the most bloated melodrama can be sold through a well-manicured image. And some of Heathers’ images are indelible: J.D. (Christian Slater) whipping out a gun on some school bullies in the lunch room, or Veronica (Winona Ryder) passively lighting her cigarette with the flames licking from the explosion of her former boyfriend. It makes sense that writer Daniel Waters originally wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct his script: Heathers is a filmmaker’s (teen) film, and one of the best free YouTube comedies right now. —Dom Sinacola
The Kid
Year: 1921
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Stars: Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance
Rating:NR
Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length film and one of his finest achievements, The Kid tells the story of an abandoned child and the life he builds with The Little Tramp. Chaplin went against heavy studio opposition to create a more serious film in contrast to his earlier work. However, The Kid features just as much slapstick humor as his previous shorts, but placed within a broader, more dramatic context. —Wyndham Wyeth
The Muppets Take Manhattan
Year: 1984
Director: Frank Oz
Stars: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Dabney Coleman, James Coco, Joan Rivers, Brooke Shields, Linda Lavin
Rating: G
The Muppets Take Manhattan achieves a timeless quality because of how Oz stages the Muppets within the city or during auditions in a way that feels contemporary while also being deeply inspired by the Hollywood styles of Vincente Minnelli or Stanley Donnen. At its heart, always, is the Muppets’ need to perform, which is constantly simmering through separation and despair until it is allowed to bloom in the last act. And then Oz delivers a showcase finale that mixes everything surreal and special about the Muppets in a chorus of penguins, singing cakes, a surprise wedding, and instant classic songs like “Together Again” and “Somebody’s Getting Married.” It’s a triumph of the fuzzy will with a satisfying old school ending culminating in a church filled with rapturous Muppets from every era of Henson’s career. It’s Oz showing everything he’s capable of doing in his wheelhouse, and a tantalizing tease of where he’ll go next.
The Navigator
Year: 1924
Directors: Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp
Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Fred Vroom
Rating:NR
The Navigator mines an ocean liner for every gag imaginable. Keaton plays a clueless rich young man who finds himself stranded on a giant, adrift ship with the clueless rich young woman who rejected him serving as his only company. These two spoiled upper-class twerps don’t know how to open canned food, let alone operate a ship, and have to improvise in hilarious ways to get things under control. The scene where the two characters each suspect someone else is on the boat, but can’t find anyone else, plays out in classic Keaton fashion: with perfectly timed wide shots that make it more believable that the two keep missing each other. The best moment may be a spooky night when the characters let the creepiness of the boat get the best of them. —Jeremy Mathews
Our Hospitality
Year: 1923
Directors: Buster Keaton, Jack Blystone
Stars: Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Keaton
Rating: NR
Buster Keaton was never one for grandiose social commentary, but he loved observing absurd human behavior. So he had no trouble making Our Hospitality, about a generations-long family feud that comes head-to-head with a southern hospitality code. That code says that you can’t kill someone when they’re a guest in your house, so when Keaton’s character unknowingly stumbles into his enemy family’s home, he can’t leave. Keaton has a great time attempting escapes, with the inside of the house serving as his safe zone if things go wrong. The funniest moment is the dinner prayer, during which everyone is watching everyone else rather than actually praying. A river chase sequence, including a killer waterfall stunt, brings things to a perfect climax. And I didn’t even mention the first act’s use of Stephenson’s Rocket—the historically accurate, ridiculously puny train that transports our hero from New York City. This film also just entered the public domain on Jan. 1. —Jeremy Mathews
Pootie Tang
Year: 2001
Director: Louis C.K.
Stars: Lance Crouther, J.B. Smoove, Jennifer Coolidge, Wanda Sykes, Robert Vaughn, Chris Rock, Reg E. Cathey, Todd Barry as “Greasy”
Rating: PG-13
Is Pootie Tang a ridiculous, surreal, subversive anti-comedy, or a flat-out terrible piece of trash? Uncomfortably walking the line between the two, the film goes far enough in both directions to provide, at the very least, a lazy afternoon worth of enjoyment. Adapted from a blaxploitation-satirizing sketch featured on The Chris Rock Show, Pootie is the coolest mutha-shutyourmouth in town, beating baddies with his belt, and refusing to speak a word of understandable English.—Zachary Philyaw
The Scarecrow
Year: 1920
Director: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline
Stars: Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Joe Keaton
Rating:NR
There are Buster Keaton two-reelers with more ambitious special effects, more epic stunts and more elaborate chase scenes, but in my experience, none get more laughs than The Scarecrow. The film never stops to catch a breath as it moves from place to place, always setting up and paying off new laughs. The best moments include an ingeniously designed one-room house, an appearance from the great Luke the Dog, and some truly divine knockabout between Keaton, Joe Roberts and Keaton’s father, Joe. —Jeremy Mathews
Sherlock Jr.
Year: 1924
Director: Buster Keaton
Stars: Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Joe Keaton
Rating:NR
You could make a highlight reel of classic silent comedy moments using only Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr., and no one could justly complain. In the 91 years since Keaton made his love letter to cinema, no one has crafted a better examination of the relationship between the audience and the silver screen. Keaton plays a movie theater projectionist and wannabe detective who dreams he walks into a movie screen and becomes a suave hero—the perfect metaphor for the appeal of the movies. Keaton plays with reality through virtuoso special effects, but also captures genuine stunts in single takes. (He broke his neck in one scene and still finished the take.) He daringly subverts structure—the conflict is resolved halfway through the movie with no help from the hero. He brings visual poetry to slapstick with rhyming gags. The laughs coming from failure in the real world and serendipity in the fantasy movie world, but the mechanics parallel each other. And he strings it all into a romp that never stops moving toward more hilarity.—Jeremy Mathews
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Year: 1928
Director: Buster Keaton and Charles Reisner
Stars: Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron
Rating: NR
Steamboat Bill, Jr.’s climactic cyclone sequence—which is at once great action and great comedy—would on its own earn the film a revered place in the canon of great all time silent film. The iconic shot of a house’s facade falling on Keaton is only one of many great moments in the free-flowing, hard-blowing sequence. But Steamboat Bill, Jr. also showcases some of Keaton’s marvelous intimacy as an actor, such as a scene in which his father tries to find him a more manly hat, or during a painfully hilarious attempt to pantomime a jailbreak plan. —Jeremy Mathews
10 Things I Hate About You
Year: 1999
Director: Gil Junger
Stars: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, Larry Miller, Allison Janney
Rating:PG-13
Inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the 1999 teen comedy places Katherina and Perturchio into modern times as feminist Kat and bad boy Patrick, the breakout roles for Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Patrick is initially paid to charm Kat as a part of an elaborate scheme by Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to take out her younger sister, Bianca. Ledger wins Kat and the majority of the female population over during his marching band-accompanied stadium performance of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” Though Kat is angered when finding out about the deal that formed her relationship, the so-called shrew couldn’t stay mad for too long after receiving a sincere apology and brand new guitar from her Australian beau. With the perfect amount of ‘90s nonsense, the film ends with Letter to Cleo performing Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” atop the roof of Padua High School. —Stephanie Sharp
Tropic Thunder
Year: 2008
Director: Ben Stiller
Stars: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Steve Coogan, Danny McBride
Rating: R
Ben Stiller’s parody of Hollywood obliviousness maybe hasn’t aged that well–the visual of a white man in black face is so instantly jarring that any comment it might be trying to make about the racism of the entertainment industry can easily get overlooked, as proved by all the times social media has tried to “cancel” Robert Downey Jr. over this role. It’s one of those movies that’s hard to forget, though–I saw it once, in the theater, almost a decade ago, and will often find myself remembering parts of it without at first even remembering what movie those moments are from. The great cast (including Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Bill Hader and Tom Cruise in what is easily his best comedic role) is a big reason why. And hey, it’s currently one of the best YouTube comedies you can stream for free.—Garrett Martin
Wayne’s World 2
Year: 1993
Director: Stephen Surjik
Stars: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, Tia Carrere
Rating: PG-13
Hollywood sometimes just cranks those movies out, huh? Wayne’s World 2 came out the year after the original, and, some early repetition aside, it’s almost as hilarious as the first one. It also provides a solid road map that these Saturday Night Live movies should have continued to follow; the second half is basically just a series of inspired pop culture parodies starring Wayne and Garth, basically turning it into a sketch comedy show with the budget of a movie and starring two great comedians in perhaps their most beloved roles. It’s still worth watching today, in case you were wondering, especially since it’s one of the best free YouTube comedies.–Garrett Martin
